1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a colony counting apparatus, and more particularly, to a colony counting apparatus for counting numbers of colonies with a visual sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Apparati for counting numbers of colonies are already known.
In such conventional colony counting apparatuses, a Schale in which colonies of bacteria are grown is divided into a plurality of areas on which a colony number--reading operation is performed by a reading unit, and the number of colonies of bacteria growing in the Schale is counted by counting the numbers of colonies located in the individual areas.
In the above-described colony counting apparatus, each of the areas on which a colony counting operation is performed is scanned by moving the reading unit along scanning lines that run in one direction. When the reading unit completes scanning along one scanning line, it is moved in the direction perpendicular to the scanning direction and then scans the subsequent scanning line. Each time the reading unit is moved along one scanning line, the number of colonies recognized on that scanning line is stored. The numbers of colonies counted in the individual areas are added to obtain the number of colonies in the overall areas in the Schale.
In the conventional colony counting apparatus, the circle of each colony is recognized using a plurality of scanning lines, one colony being detected when one colony circle is recognized. In consequence, the overall shape of the circle must be read to recognize one colony, requiring a very large capacity storage unit.